Friday, October 27, 2006

Hibernating ladybugs?

I love lady bugs, as a kid that was one of my nick names, and I love seeing them in the garden. I was delighted when the other night there were literally hundreds of lady bugs flying around our house and on every one of our windows, it creeped Brody out a little, but I think a mass amout of anything does that to him! I called my dad, (the landscaping expert) and he told me that lady bugs hibernate, and they were looking for somewhere warm to group together and sleep through the winter. I was even more excited when I saw that they had chosen my bathroom corner to group together! I thought that they would be a much better bug to have live with you than some spiders in the corner. I decided to do more research, and this is what I found, and now I am not so thrilled about the ladybugs being in my house....

"Tis the season! Ladybugs are looking for a place to hibernate.They are attracted to light colored homes, usually older homes and they are attracted to heat that the homes reflect. Once ladybugs have penetrated the home though, they are hard to get rid of. Ladybugs release pheromones. This helps ladybugs find each other and it lets future generations know of a good place to "camp out" for the winter. The pheromones don't go away easily. The chemical "scent" can remain year after year, and not only on the outside of a structure, but also within the walls, where ladybugs tend to hide before emerging into your home. So, scrubbing pheromones off a house is a BIG task, if not impossible."